Hi and welcome back to The Art of Business English. In today’s episode we are going to focus on a grammatical issue, which many, many non-native speakers struggle with, gerund or infinitive after verbs. Most verbs, when conjugated are then followed by another verb in infinitive form, however there are some exceptions. Some verbs require the following verb to be in the gerund or -ING form. What I also find interesting is that many of these verbs are used in business and help us form commonly used business expressions.

 

So, how does this affect my English? Firstly, if you don’t use a gerund form after a verb which requires a gerund form it makes you sound less fluent. What is important to note is that in most cases using the incorrect form will not affect the meaning of the sentence, so a native person will understand you. However, it does sound a bit strange and native speakers will notice this mistake.

 

By the end of today’s episode, you will be able to understand the following:

1. Which verbs are typically followed by gerund and/or infinitive
2. When we can use both gerund or infinitive
3. The difference in meaning between gerund and infinitive when using the same verb
4. Prepositions and expressions followed by gerund
5. Some common expressions used in everyday business English that follow these structures